Lost Stars
by Black Archivist
Summary: A one-shot about a goddess, a mother, and a ghost. I don't own any of the characters or the song used for this piece.


**Songfic based on Maroon 5's Lost Stars**

 **Please do note that I am not a very talented writer and the stories I write are drabbles with the aim of clearing my head. It's quite the stretch to call me a writer when everything I post is mostly a thought journal. Please do keep in mind that I own nothing apart from the plot and non-canon characters.**

 **Song belongs to Maroon 5**

 **Canon characters and world this is set in belongs to Rick Riordan**

 **It would be nice if you'd take the time to review. Have a nice day/afternoon/evening.**

* * *

 **Lost Stars**

 _ **Please don't see**_  
 _ **Just a boy caught up in dreams and fantasies**_  
 _ **Please see me**_  
 _ **Reaching out for someone I can't see**_

Another light snuffed out. Another child to burry. Another soul to mourn. If she were to count or at least try to remember each one she lost she'd probably be mad. Maybe this is how immortality can be a curse for anyone. It is a curse that forces you to watch the world move forward and lose things you valued fade. It is a curse to life on and on while you are haunted with the what-ifs and maybes. She walked around the blast site and examined what's left of the place; nothing.

"You could've been a lot of things," she mumbled to no one in particular as she sat down on a pile of rubble "but now there's not even a bit of you left. Foolish child" she whispered bitterly as she ran her fingers across the jagged stones. No one replied.

 _ **Take my hand, let's see where we wake up tomorrow  
Best laid plans sometimes are just a one night stand  
I'll be damned, Cupid's demanding back his arrow  
So let's get drunk on our tears**_

There was no one, no one but her and the dilapidated heap the was probably once a warehouse. "I would've loved to watch you grow up" she said softly.

She was no stranger to death, to burying her children. Gods no. She should be used to it after the first few thousand bodies she had to watch on the funeral pyre. Fate hasn't been very kind to her children after all. The only one that remained alive through the years and would probably stay that way for more to come would be Circe and Lamia, no, not Lamia, Marian.. her Marian her poor cursed Marian that withered into a monster so fearsome and bitter that she might as well not be Marian anymore. Her Marian withered into Lamia, the same one who cast the curse that damned all demigods to become easy prey to monsters. Now here's another death for her to remember.

 _ **And God, tell us the reason youth is wasted on the young  
It's hunting season and the lambs are on the run  
Searching for meaning  
But are we all lost stars trying to light up the dark?**_

What a wonderful tradeoff… She got the power to manipulate reality to live forever and all she had to give in exchange. Hecate could almost laugh at how ironic it is. She's a goddess and here she is feeling like her heart has been ripped out trampled on shredded into confetti then shoved back into her chest over being powerless. _**  
**_

Then again she was a goddess before she was a mother if she can call herself that. She looked up to the sky and watched the stars. She remembered her childhood, her mother, her father, her children and how bright of a future they could've had if they've chosen a different path. She won't tell anyone about it but in her head she had a star for each of her children to remember them and would at times imagine they're up in the sky smiling as the stars twinkled and shone against the dark backdrop of night.

 _ **Who are we?  
Just a speck of dust within the galaxy?  
Woe is me  
If we're not careful turns into reality**_

"Circe, Marian Lamia, Lou Ellen, Alabaster Torrington," She began as she tried to remember each and every one of her children. Perhaps the other gods were right about keeping their distance. Maybe it would hurt less to say their names if she did not keep watch and let herself grow attached. What a fool she has been to let herself be fixated on evanescent creatures such as demigods. What a fool she has been to let each and every one of them take a little piece of her with them as they fall one by one.

 _ **But don't you dare let our best memories bring you sorrow**_  
 _ **Yesterday I saw a lion kiss a deer**_  
 _ **Turn the page, maybe we'll find a brand new ending**_  
 _ **Where we're dancing in our tears**_

She could remember the moments she saw them smiling from afar. She can remember how carefree how happy of full of life they all once were. She saw them grow, make friends, overcome challenges, fall in love, and be claimed by the cold hands of death. As of late it has been a series of violent deaths after the other. Perhaps this was the price to pay for siding with Kronos. It was the price that her children would pay. She had traded the smiles of her children for a broken promise. Now here she is standing in the emptiness talking to herself like a madwoman looking for answers when there is no one to give them.

 _ **And God, tell us the reason youth is wasted on the young**_  
 _ **It's hunting season and the lambs are on the run**_  
 _ **Searching for meaning**_  
 _ **But are we all lost stars trying to light up the dark?**_

Why? Why did they die the way they did? How can she be powerful and powerless at the same time? For the first time in her immortal life she began to question just what it was all for. What good was being a god when you can't even protect the very people who give you strength. What use is immortality when it is spent watching the other gods be petty as the world falls apart. What use is power when all you could do is hide the truth. Oh how blissful it would have been

"You were taken far too young but then again, that's a ripe age for a demigod isn't it?" she breathed as she prepared to leave and probably try to burry this memory along with the others. Perhaps she's a sadist to do this for every one of her children, to torture herself with visiting where they passed on. Thankfully there were no graves for her to visit because that would have been bigger torture... She can't pretend that they're simply elsewhere living out their lives far from her reach.

 _ **And I thought I saw you out there crying**_  
 _ **And I thought I heard you call my name**_  
 _ **And I thought I heard you out there crying**_  
 _ **Just the same**_

"Milady," said a soft wispy voice making the goddess turn around.

She was greeted by a figure in a tattered navy blue jacket and dark wash jeans with deep green eyes messy salt and pepper hair kept in a low ponytail a rueful smile and a pale face with a scar on the left cheek. It's one of the many faces she spent hours memorizing. It's the face of her child.

"You're dead" she said with a tinge of sadness in her voice

"I can see that Milady" the girl replied

"Am I going mad?" Hecate asked examining the ghost taking in every feature afraid she'd forget something

"Perhaps," the girl replied "You came here for something no?"

"Yes but I don't know what. Is it you or am I making this up," she asked trying to reach out for the figure

"Who knows," The girl replied chuckling "Do you know me?"

"No," she replied, "I'm afraid not. I never got to"

"I know. We all do," said the figure looking at her with a serene gaze

 _ **And God, give us the reason youth is wasted on the young  
It's hunting season and this lamb is on the run  
Searching for meaning  
But are we all lost stars trying to light ... light up the dark?**_

One by one more figures all familiar to her appeared. Each one engraved in her heart with the same sad smile on their lips. Each one of different age, skin color, size, each one special. Each one precious.

"We wanted to say goodbye," said a boy

"Please tell Lou not to cry," said another

"We'll be okay,"

"Tell them we love them"

"Tell Alabaster we forgive him"

"we'll be waiting"

With each message one ghost vanished leaving no trace. After a while she was down to the last ghost to fade, the first one to appear, the one that died in this very blast site.

"We forgive you. It'll be alright... I know it will. Farewell," said the first ghost as she too slowly evaporated into nothing and the goddess is left alone

 _ **And I thought I saw you out there crying**_  
 _ **And I thought I heard you call my name**_  
 _ **And I thought I heard you out there crying**_  
 _ **But are we all lost stars trying to light up the dark?**_  
 _ **Are we all lost stars trying to light up the dark?**_

Maybe... just maybe... that was what she was looking for. Maybe all these years those three words was all that she wanted to hear from her children, "We forgive you"


End file.
